Module 3: Fiction, Narratives, and Twists of Fate

Learning Objectives

—Analyze the narrative in a short story

—Describe the characters in a short story

—Draft an outline for story that that could potentially be the plot for a blockbuster film.

Paper #3: Twist of Fate

Select a short story from Section 8.

Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings

Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour

Sandra Cisneros, House on Mango Street

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown

Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat

James Joyce, Araby

Franz Kafka, Before the Law

Jamaica Kincaid, Girl ** Here is a worksheet for "Girl" that you can use for other works. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?

Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

Juan Rulfo, Tell Them Not to Kill Me

Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Draft: Write a 500 – 750-word essay that responds to the following questions:

or, alternatively, you may follow the structure of this worksheet (the link is to an example (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.)

1. What is the name of the story? The author? Year published?
2. What is the story about? (short paragraph)
3. Who is the main character and what are the main qualities?
4. What is the “twist of fate” in the story? What did you think when you read it? How did it make you feel?
5. What is the message?
6. Think of an updated version of the story. How would you modify the story to make it take place now? Describe the names, places, and other elements.
7. DIY Blockbuster! A lot of movies and television series are based on updates and modifications of classics. Here’s a chance to create your own.

Final Version: Expand your draft and add more details and 2 or 3 more paragraphs to the DIY Blockbuster!

Discussion 4: What is it about graphic novels that hook people and make them want to collect them?

Graphic novels are considered literature by scholars of literature and the humanities. Why might that be so? Have you read any graphic novels? Describe one graphic novel and explain what you found most interesting. Check out some of the graphic novels here: https://libwww.freelibrary.org/explore/topic/graphic-novels (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. . (75 – 150 words for your first post, please respond to 2 other posts (25 – 50 words))

Discussion 5: DIY Poetry

After you read several works of poetry, did you give it a try? Feel free to share a short poem (either one you wrote or one you found) and explain what you really liked about it. Here’s a convenient Poem Guide by the Poetry Foundation. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/guides (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Activity 4: Research and MLA Citations

Go to the Troy online libraries. Look at the ProQuest databases. Find an article, thesis, or dissertation on a work that you read, or an author of a work in your book.

Prepare a Works Cited entry for it.

https://trojan.troy.edu/library/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

Writing Strategies

writing strategies – narrative / exemplification essays (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.